New MS Tools Aim to Snatch IBM Notes Users

This morning, Microsoft announced plans to market a number of new analytical and data transfer tools that could draw users of rival IBM’s Lotus Notes to purchase Microsoft e-mail software instead, Reutersreports.

One feature of Microsoft’s new tools would allow companies to collaborate on projects via the Web; a feature focused directly on swapping the allegiance of Lotus Notes users’ to the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant.

Microsoft and IBM are currently the lead competitors in the $2.8 billion corporate messaging market, which includes tools such as e-mail, Web publishing and project management systems, and both are looking to put their stamp on the way Web services will function in the future.

Matt Cain, an analyst with Gartner, says Microsoft has been gaining market share by a few percent points per year, and he expects this trend to continue, Reuters reports.

A report released by The Radicati Group last summer estimated that Microsoft Exchange, the server behind Microsoft Outlook, was headed towards 126 million users in 2005, while IBM’s Domino, the server behind Notes, was expected to have 88 million customers. Radicati also estimated that Microsoft had 32 percent of the 389 million users of e-mail and other collaborations software, compared to IBM’s 24 percent.

–Al Sacco